27.5 Reviews and News

Orbea has made the transition from road bike company, XC specialists and and now All Mountain experts. With the Rallon, Occam and now the Loki, they’ve created a family of bikes that are truly fun to ride.

Expanding the sweet spot of their single-crown, 35mm platform, the Lyric has been stiffened up and longer travel options have been introduced. The Yari fork is introduced with even more travel options and a more affordable price.

Known for lust-worthy road bikes, Orbea broke the mtb ice last year with the rowdy, enduro-ready Rallon. With everything they learned about mtb geometry, they merged that with their carbon expertise to create the trail ready Occam.

Specialized adds to the 29er and 27.5 stable with a 3.0 tire version. Outer tire diameter is roughly the same as the 29er version but its character is quite a bit different with ultimate comfort and traction.

SRAM has made huge strides in its wheel development. They’ve dissected every part of the wheel system and improved all the components. They’re not very wide yet but the engineering is now very sound with the RAIL line of wheels. Performance and affordability are in the forefront as well.